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Small businesses still build on big dreams Photo by Jim Craven Tim Fadden and one of his fractal art prints he calls "tangle." Fadden's company, Singular By Design, is among the more than 60 percent of Oregon businesses classified as "microenterprises" because they have five or fewer employees. `Microenterprises' grow in importance to state economy By DAVID PRESZLER It's been a year since Tim Fadden left his job managing an Ashland group home to strike out on his own. The 42-year-old, like thousands of others around Southern Oregon and the state, swapped the security of employment for the freedom of entrepreneurship. He started a digital media design company called Singular by Design. "It's scary as heck," he admits. "I haven't quite hit living under the bridge yet, but ..." Such is the life of the small-business owner. But don't let size fool you. Exceptionally small firms make up more than 60 percent of Oregon businesses. More than 54,000 businesses in the state and nearly 2,500 in Jackson County are microenterprises -- businesses with five or fewer employees. To celebrate the contribution of such businesses to the state's economy, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has proclaimed November microenterprise month. From artisans to accountants to machinists, Oregon is brimming with small-business people trying to make it, especially in more rural areas such as Southern Oregon. Microenterprises make up 60.4 percent of the businesses in Jackson County and higher percentages in Josephine and Klamath counties. Nonprofit groups such as Southern Oregon Women's Access to Credit, which aided Fadden, and Southern Oregon University's Small Business Development Center have grown more and more prominent, helping entrepreneurs learn the ins and outs of running a business. It's help that people like Sharon Ramey of Shady Cove say is much appreciated. Ramey launched a home-based business called Animal Tracks two years ago and says SOWAC "taught me how to do business." A contract wildlife biologist and part-time dental hygienist, Ramey, 58, has built a side business taking clay and paper castings of wildlife footprints and adding feathers, pine needles and the like to create artwork. She's learned that art is only part of the work; there are marketing, accounting and other tasks to be done. But she says it's worth the effort. "I'm really loving what I'm doing,'' she says. For Central Point's Jim Hopson, running a business has become a habit. His father ran his own busines; Hopson took it over for 10 years after his dad retired. He worked elsewhere briefly before starting Ponderosa Machine Shop, which does ornamental iron and custom machine work and has one other employee, about two and a half years ago. "It's a lot more fun," says Hopson. "It keeps you busy. You try to do five different things at once. Days are short." That juggling act is one of the hardest parts of running microenterprise businesses. "The number of hats individuals have to wear in a business can be overwhelming," says Liz Shelby of the Small Business Development Center. "The smaller the business the more likely they are to have a more difficult time." She says about half of new businesses fail in the first year and 80-90 percent fail in the first three. The odds aren't news to Fadden. He says he had a few earlier forays into self-employment that failed. But the idea of controlling his own fate was too appealing to pass up, even after seven years managing the group home. "I wanted to make my own decisions about my future," he says. "I accepted a low income so that my career would not be at the whims of someone else." Fadden made the break when he came into a few thousand dollars and got a new boss at the group home. His wife works for the Jackson Education Service District, providing a stable source of income. That stability allowed him to make use of the computer programming degree he got in the 1980s and pursue his passion: fractal art. Fractal art is mathematics-based artwork that he calls ``tie-dye for the next millennium." He incorporates the artwork into business cards, notecards and Web site design. He says the business is "coming along" ... but financial success is only part of the equation. Waking up Monday mornings excited about a week's worth of work and feeling "bummed on Friday because I can't work for two days" is really what he's after. "I need to love what I do," he says. "I've always felt destined to be my own boss." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA